Tsunami Seen From Space: NASA’s SWOT Satellite Captures 2025 Kamchatka Megaquake in Unprecedented Detail
A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29, 2025, generating a Pacific-wide tsunami. For the first time, NASA and CNES’s SWOT satellite captured high-resolution images of the tsunami wavefield from space. The data, published in The Seismic Record, revealed complex wave patterns that challenge previous tsunami models. Most affected coastlines saw wave heights under 1 meter.